


Staring is Caring

by elegantdalek



Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: M/M, Schmoop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-10
Updated: 2013-07-10
Packaged: 2017-12-18 08:42:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/877860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elegantdalek/pseuds/elegantdalek
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jensen keeps staring at Jared, who is dying to know why.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Staring is Caring

Living with Jensen really isn’t that different from living alone. When they get home from work they veg out on the couch and eat everything in the fridge. Well, maybe that part is just Jared. Jensen has a more normal approach to eating. But besides that, it’s the same. Couch, fridge, TV, walk the dogs, sleep.

But after a few weeks Jared feels like something is off. The food is the same, the TV is the same, and for a couple days Jared puzzles over what’s different, what’s changed. Then it hits him, staring him in the face.

It’s Jensen, doing exactly that. Staring at him. At first he thinks it’s just a random zone-out, but upon closer observation, Jensen stares at him a lot. At work it’s normal – he’s Sam and Jensen is Dean, and they have practically every scene together. But at home they’re just Jared and Jensen. So why does Jensen keep looking at him?

It’s not like Jensen is obvious about it. He’s pretty discrete, always already eyeing something else by the time Jared turns his head. But once he realizes, he can’t seem to stop trying to catch Jensen in the act.

Jared tries to watch him out of the corner of his eye, but it’s hard to creep on someone who is already creeping on you. Then it gets awkward, when Jensen catches Jared. They never say anything, just have a bizarre staring contest, both refusing to look away, with a slight blush forming on Jensen’s cheeks, before Jared can’t take it anymore. “What’s the problem, man?” He practically shouts, turning in to face Jensen. “Why do you keep staring at me?”

Jensen just stares back, expression blank, and for a second Jared has an urge to smack his face, because seriously? But then he starts laughing, head turned back, and Jensen grins. “You’ve got food on your face,” he says, touching his own cheek to indicate where, eyes sparkling, and Jared automatically reaches up to brush away whatever food substance caused Jensen to stare at him like a deer in the headlights.

But wait, food on his face now doesn’t explain why Jensen has been staring at him for weeks. And to make matters worse, Jared’s fingers only encounter skin. “You’re a jerk,” he says, shoving Jensen into the couch, and Jensen laughs, teeth visible behind his grin.

“You’re so gullible, Jared,” Jensen says, reaching up to tickle Jared’s armpits, but Jared is too smart for that. He moves his arms down, grabbing at Jensen’s hips instead, intending to flip Jensen onto the floor, but it appears that Jensen is smarter than Jared gives him credit for, because Jensen’s true goal is to mess up Jared’s hair.

Jared immediately reaches up to his head. “That’s priceless personal property you’re handling,” he says, trying to push Jensen’s hands away. Jensen huffs a large bark of laughter and can hardly stop now, but he does have enough energy to tickle Jared’s arms, and they suddenly find themselves on the floor in a pile of limbs and laughter. “Jen, stop, please,” Jared calls out in-between giggles, and tries his best to move away from Jensen, but he’s everywhere, hands all over Jared’s body, even back at his hair, taunting him, before he finally stops, energy dissipated away, and they calm down lying tangled together on the floor.

Glancing over and catching Jensen’s eyes brings a fresh round of laughter, but finally they stop, staring at each other and grinning.

***                                                                                                  

It’s not until the next day that Jared realizes he didn’t ever figure out why Jensen keeps staring at him. It’s really starting to bug him now and he can’t forget about it. He tries to observe Jensen at work, but it’s not any different than he remembers. He and Jensen spend almost all day together, but that’s nothing out of the ordinary. It would be weird if they didn’t spend each hour together. And they know each other so well that they don’t even need words. Jensen always seems to know exactly what Jared is thinking.

Now that Jared thinks about it from an outside perspective, they are really close. They even live together for godsakes. He can see why those crazy fangirls think that he and Jensen are secretly dating. If anything they’re more goofy and flirty when the cameras aren’t on them.

But it’s Jensen. It doesn’t feel weird or wrong because it’s Jensen. Jensen is just Jensen, his best friend.

***

That night they’re at home again, looking like zombies on the couch like normal, when Jared decides again to try and figure out why Jensen keeps staring at him. But when is the right moment?

Finally Jensen stands up, with a good deal of moaning and groaning, and asks Jared if he wants anything from the kitchen.

“Yeah, man, could you get that bag of salt and vinegar chips I bought yesterday?”

“You ate those yesterday, dude,” Jensen says.

Damn. Those would’ve tasted excellent right now. “Well how about my leftover noodles from Sunday?”

“Cold? Cause I’m not heating them up for you,” Jensen calls amidst the sounds of rustling in the fridge.

“Aww baby don’t be like that,” Jared sweet talks back, grinning into the couch. With enough pleading and whining Jensen will do anything to get Jared to shut up. Of course there’s probably just as likely a chance that he’ll end up with a face full of cold noodles. You never know. He still finds the odd Skittle in his bed from that unfortunate time with the bowl of candy.

“You’re a fucking jerk,” Jensen says, “And your noodles smell like death. I’m throwing them away.”

Jared works up enough strength to sit up and look into the kitchen. “Jensennnn,” he whines, and is rewarded with a bitch face from Jensen. Which reminds him of the staring thing, and the fact that he was going to ask Jensen about it again. The food got him distracted. It does that sometimes. “Fine. Then how about you just tell me why you keep staring at me all the time?”

Jared is pleased, although confused, to see Jensen blush. But after a few seconds Jensen gains his composure. “You really wanna know?”

Jared doesn’t even say anything, just nods his head vehemently.

“Come here, I’ll tell you,” Jensen says, softly, and Jared can’t resist. He stands up and walks into the kitchen slowly, frowning slightly at the cheshire grin on Jensen’s face. It almost feels like they’re in a slasher film, and the audience is screaming at him to stop and run far away in the opposite direction. But he’s too curious.

“So what is it?” Jared asks, stopping a foot or so from Jensen.

“Come closer.”

Jared looks Jensen up and down but does as Jensen asks. Until he notices Jensen’s holding something behind his back. As he watches, the arm whips out. “Scissors? What the hell!” Jared shouts. Jensen laughs and before Jared has a chance to react Jensen has a hand on his neck.

“I’m not going to look at this stupid long hair anymore. Not gonna do it. You’re getting a haircut.” Jensen continues to grip Jared and snaps the scissors in the air.

“You wouldn’t,” Jared breaths, dumb struck and staring at Jensen. “You wouldn’t dare.”

There’s a frightening gleam in Jensen’s eye as they stare each other down and then all hell breaks loose.

Jensen grabs a handful of Jared’s hair at the same time that Jared’s brain turns back on and he moves, which results in the scissors getting dangerously close to his hair. Jared reaches out to grab them, but Jensen moves a hand in around Jared’s back, so Jared has no choice but to turn and back into the corner between the oven and the fridge.

“You’re a wiry prey, aren’t you,” Jensen drawls, pacing in front of Jared.

“It doesn’t matter. You don’t have the guts to do it,” Jared taunts. At this point, Jared’s 90% sure that Jensen isn’t actually going to follow through, but tonight just got a hell of a lot more interesting. 

“Yeah? You’re gonna be surprised, man.” Jensen opens and closes the scissors again, pretending to get close enough to cut Jared’s hair. During one of these motions Jared makes his move – he launches out, grabbing Jensen’s wrists, and pushes Jensen into the corner – and then takes off running through the house.

“Hey!” Jensen yells from behind him. Jared is gleeful, running in circles around the stairwell, and Jensen pursues but doesn’t manage to catch Jared. The dogs join in, barking and jumping up on Jensen, and it’s even more fun.

Jared runs up the stairs and sneaks through the connected bathroom from one guest room to the other. He hears Jensen come into the second room though, the little fucker, so Jared doubles back and ends up hiding in the shadows behind the door to his own bedroom.

After a few seconds Jensen realizes Jared is hiding and quiets his own footsteps so Jared can’t hear him. But Jared can see from his hiding spot, and once Jensen comes into view Jared tenses, waiting for the perfect moment, and then jumps out just as Jensen walks in front of him.

Jared manages to surprise Jensen, if the little yell counts for anything, but unfortunately Jensen had the scissors open when Jared jumped, and they nicked his neck. He drops to the ground by instinct, on his back, and moves his hands to the cut on his neck. But Jensen doesn’t realize that Jared is hurt, merely that he’s lying on the ground, and he uses the opportunity to straddle Jared, pinning Jared’s side with his thighs.

“You’re all mine now, buddy,” Jensen says, slow and sure. “Your hair is going … Jared?” Suddenly all the cockiness drops from his voice. “Are you okay?” Jared hears the scissors drop to the ground behind his head and then Jensen’s hands are on his neck, gently pushing his own aside. “You’re bleeding!” Jared feels cloth smooth over his neck and he opens his eyes, startled to see Jensen using his own shirt to staunch the wound.

“Jensen, you didn’t have to do that, man,” Jared says. “It’s not even that bad.”

“I’m so sorry, Jared,” Jensen says, ignoring him and continuing to wipe away the blood. “I wasn’t even going to cut your hair. I never meant for this to happen.” Jared looks up at Jensen, staring down at him with such remorse in his eyes. Jared forgets the pain in his neck because he can barely breathe with the way Jensen is staring at him. Again. But then Jensen looks back down at Jared’s neck. “The bleeding stopped,” he says, and before Jared can blink Jensen kisses the cut.

Jared’s heart stops. But Jensen doesn’t end with the cut. He presses a kiss to Jared’s jaw and chin as well, and then after a second, a brief kiss to Jared’s mouth too.

“That’s why,” Jensen says so softly Jared can barely hear him. “That’s why I’ve been staring.” All Jared can do is stare back at him.

“What the hell?” Jared whispers, more a question than anything.  

Jensen leans back and closes his eyes. “I’m sorry, Jared.” Jensen’s legs are still trapping Jared on the floor, but he releases the pressure and in one move Jared flips him.

It’s actually some old choreography from set. But Jensen doesn’t try to stop him.

Their positions reversed, Jared looks down at Jensen. Jensen’s lips are slightly parted and his eyes are open wide, staring back into Jared’s eyes. Jared’s suddenly transfixed by how pretty Jensen is. He swallows hard. Jensen hasn’t moved an inch, just continues to stare up at Jared. The air feels heavy as Jared leans down slowly, not entirely sure what he’s doing.

Jensen starts to close his eyes and Jared is about an inch away when the doorbell rings, loud and clear, and the spell is broken. They’re both on their feet in half a second, trying not to look at each other.

“I’ll get the door,” Jensen stumbles out, and then practically runs down the stairs. His neck is red.

Jared looks after him and then walks through his room to the bathroom and looks in the mirror at his neck. It hurts to touch the cut, but it doesn’t look too bad and Jared’s sure it will just scab over in a day or two. More worrisome is what just happened between him and Jensen. Or more accurately, what almost happened. Jensen kissed him. And Jared would have kissed him back, if not for the doorbell.

Jared sighs and runs his hands through his hair. It’s not like he’s never thought about Jensen like that. Jensen is too pretty for his own good and half the time, when bantering with Jensen, it feels more like flirting than anything else. But he’s never actually thought about bending down and kissing him.

It wasn’t as weird as he thought it might be.

Actually it was a lot nicer than it probably had a right to be.

Jared runs his thumb over his bottom lip and stares at his reflection in the mirror. He can hear Jensen’s voice drifting up from downstairs, and a minute later the door shuts. Probably just a package. Jared hears Jensen climbing back up the stairs, and he tries to think of something to say to Jensen. He’s suddenly sure Jensen is about to go hide in the basement, beg off on some lame excuse, and Jared really doesn’t want that to happen. But when he turns around Jensen is holding a box of Thin Mints.

“You got cookies? God bless the door-to-door girl scouts!” Once again, Jared is distracted by food.  “Wait, are you trying to bribe me? Trying to make me forget how you almost killed me Sweeny Todd style?” And his default setting with Jensen is always banter. He can’t really stop.

“Well, they are for you,” Jensen says, handing the box over to Jared. “And there’s four more downstairs.”

“I love you,” Jared mumbles through three Thin Mints.

“How did you even manage to open them so fast?”

“Cookies.”

Jensen smiles and shakes his head. “Yeah, I guess I really shouldn’t be surprised. But, umm,” Jensen clears his throat. “It wasn’t a door-to-door cookie sale. Susan’s daughter Molly from down the street was just dropping them off.”

Jared frowns and continues chewing.

“I ordered them a few weeks ago. I knew you’d love them.” Jensen won’t look Jared in the face now. “I didn’t mean to buy you cookies, I just, umm. Bought you cookies.”

Jared takes in the sight of Jensen standing in front of him, hands wringing together and gaze pointed to the floor. He’s nervous, Jared suddenly realizes. He’s really fucking nervous. And adorable. And he bought cookies weeks ago specifically for Jared. And a few minutes ago he kissed him.

“I forgot to finish something,” Jared announces, last bits of cookie swallowed.

“Tomorrow’s script?” Jensen asks helplessly.

“Nope.” Jared steps right in front of Jensen and finally he looks up into Jared’s eyes. “This,” Jared says, and kisses Jensen. 


End file.
